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I get out of the truck and walk over to open Sadie’s door and she jumps down onto the asphalt. As I am helping her with her backpack, I ask, “Sadie Girl, are you ready for a wonderful year?” She smiles back and replies, “I’m ready!” as she reaches out to hold my hand.

Walking through the office door, I see the secretary settling into her desk.

She has short gray hair, wears metal thin eyeglasses and has bright green eyes.

I recognized her from the new staff meeting last week.

She looks up and greets the both of us. “Hi! Welcome to our Wolf Pack! I’m Mrs. Hart. But you can call me Mrs. Emily.”

Smiling back at Mrs. Emily, I introduce myself. “I’m Luke Beckett, the new third-grade teacher.” I motion towards Sadie, “This is my daughter, Sadie.” Mrs. Emily peeks over her desk at Sadie.

“I’m in first grade now and I’ll be six soon!”

“Almost six? Oh Sugar Bear, that sounds exciting!” Mrs. Emily says. “I’ve been working here for the last three decades. If you need anything, I’m the one you call.” Mrs. Emily smiles back at my little girl and tells us it was nice to meet us and she looks forward to getting to know the two of us.

I looked to the side and noticed there was a small office to the right of the secretary’s desk. The nameplate on the door says “ Vice Principal.” She’s Someone I haven’t met yet. “Mrs. Emily? When does the VP come in? She wasn’t here during our new staff meeting.”

“Ah yes— Miss Carter was at a conference and will be here later today. You will meet her soon; she is very popular here. The sweetest girl you’ll ever meet.”

“I look forward to meeting her.” I replied. Mrs. Emily reaches over her desk and hands me my newly printed ID badge and key card for building access throughout the campus.

After checking in the front office, I have the keycards to my new classroom. Sadie and I walk down the hallway towards my classroom. It is four rows back from the front office. This is such a beautiful property with tall pine trees all along the outside of this two story campus building.

When we locate my door, I unlock my classroom and reach for the lights. We walk through and notice it is only 7:30 AM. School doesn’t start until 8:10, so we have plenty of time to walk around. Sadie puts her things on the back countertop and together we wander the halls of our new school.

We walk down the quiet hall a couple rows down to Sadie’s classroom.

We get closer and we see her teacher unlocking his door.

Mr. Grant is shorter than I am, with dark brown hair.

His first day of school outfit is a gray button-up shirt with a yellow number two pencil tie.

He turns to greet us at his door. “Hi there. Are you in my class?” He says to Sadie.

Sadie shyly replies, “Yes, my name is Sadie Beckett, and this is my Daddy. He is a new teacher here.” As she points to me and I give a subtle wave to Mr. Grant.

“Hello, Miss Sadie Beckett! It’s a pleasure to meet you and your father.

My daughter Kelsey will be in the class next door—she’s in first grade too.

She’ll be here soon with my wife.” Sadie’s eyes lit up for a moment, but I caught the flicker of sadness when he mentioned his wife. He stepped aside to let us in.

He has various Funko Pops in his classroom; one on his desk is his likeness.

He motions towards it and says, “It was a birthday gift from my wife this year.” I tell him it is spot on, looks just like him.

It also reminds me of two things: I have to finish decorating my classroom and I have the pencil wreath Juliette made for my old classroom door when I first became a teacher eight years ago.

I have it in the truck, but I haven’t brought it down yet.

I shook Mr. Grant’s hand, and he introduced himself.

“I’m Caleb, I’ve been here a few years. My oldest daughter, Kira, is in middle school.

She insisted on my wife dropping her off down the street.

So I suggested she should bring Kelsey today.

” He looks at me for a split second, and I know he is probably wondering why Sadie’s mother isn’t here.

I wanted to tell him beforehand, but my email wasn’t working right.

I use Sadie’s distraction with the Disney Funko Pops as an opportunity to tell Caleb about our family situation.

I clear my throat. He looks at me with concerned eyes, I say the words I hate the most, “Caleb, I wanted to email you beforehand but as you know I’m a new hire and I can’t seem to get my email working on my laptop right now.

Well, this is still so emotional to me. My wife, Sadie’s mother, Juliette— she died last year.

We are still grieving her loss. We moved here recently; Sadie has been adjusting okay, but I know it is still really difficult for her.

Hell— it’s still hard for me.” He gives me a sympathetic look and puts his hands in his pockets and says, “Oh gosh, I am so sorry for your loss, Luke.” He continues on and says, “Our school just hired a new psychologist. If you want and feel comfortable, I can call him to set up a meeting.” A psychologist?

Why didn’t I think of that myself? I shook his hand and said, “That would be great! I know that will really benefit Sadie in the long run. Please keep me updated on the initial meeting.”

After our conversation, Sadie and I head back to my classroom quickly to get her backpack and lunch pail to return to her own classroom.

I tell her I’ll see her soon. I love her and give her a hug and a kiss.

Before I walk out the door, she waves bye to me and tells me she loves me too.

I look back when she isn’t looking, and she’s talking to another student who just walked in.

They’re settling in at their desks, discussing their new backpacks and lunch pails.

Outside Sadie’s class, I see the other teachers in the hallway opening their doors to welcome their new students and the commotion of the first day is underway.

If I could say I had a great day, I’d be lying. I got lost not once, but twice on my way to the cafeteria. My keycard to get back inside the building from recess duty wasn’t working, and I spilled my morning coffee all over my new shirt. I look absolutely rough.

Sadie walks into my classroom and I can already see she had a better day than I did.

Her ponytail is now low and barely holding on.

She gives me a big hug and I ask her, “Tell me about your day. How was it?” She says, “I had so much fun in Mr. Grant’s class.

I met a new friend and her name is Grace, like my middle name! ”

When Juliette and I found out she was pregnant, we were so excited to be parents.

At our third appointment, we found out we were having a baby girl and my heart doubled in size.

Juliette had wanted to name our daughter Sadie since we first started talking about children.

I knew immediately her middle name will be the same as Juliette’s.

As Sadie walks over to my desk, she asks “Daddy, may I please color on the whiteboard? I want to draw you a flower.” I open my desk drawer to retrieve the markers.

“Yes, but please make sure you put the caps back on.” I hand her a fresh box of expo markers, and she hops away happily to the front of the classroom.

I reach for my phone to take a photo of Sadie and the flower she drew on the whiteboard. I open my messages to send it to my brother and the Anderson family group chat.

You spoil her but I appreciate it.

A quick response from Liam comes through before I send my in-laws a text. Liam hearts it and usually that means he’s in a meeting but wants me to know he saw it. Sometimes he’ll respond quickly, like right now.

Liam: Girlie can have anything she wants, you already know this!

First day done, I think she had a great day. What do you guys think?

Within seconds of putting my phone down, I hear my text tone go off and it’s Nina. Her response is:

Nina: She looks so cute!

William:

Then Juliette’s older brothers, Matthew and Nicholas’ responses, were almost identical to each other.

Matthew: Slim Sadie looks just like Juliette.

Nicholas: How does Slim Sadie look so much like Jules at that age!

That made me smile for a few reasons.

Matthew and Nicholas gave Sadie her nickname the day she was born. They were helping me paint her nursery when “The Real Slim Shady” by Eminem came on Juliette’s playlist. I had no idea at the time that was what they planned on calling her.

We were in the hospital room; Juliette had just finished feeding Sadie, and I changed her diaper.

Walking in together, they each gave Juliette a gentle hug before they leaned over to peek at Sadie, asleep in my arms. Nick handed his sister the gift bag.

Juliette reaches inside the bag and unfolds the tiny white onesie carefully, revealing the pink letters. It said “Hello My Name is Slim Sadie”

We all burst into loud, uncontrollable laughter, and my sweet baby girl let out a soft whimper. We immediately apologized to the tiny bundle wrapped in pink, then whispered for the rest of the visit, careful not to disturb her again.

The nickname stuck so fast, our nieces and nephews have only ever called Sadie “ Slim Sadie. ” Of course, my mother-in-law, Nina, wasn’t a huge fan of her sons, giving her baby granddaughter that nickname.

But every so often, she and my father-in-law William will call her that as well. It’s really the cutest thing ever.

I start to gather my things when my classroom phone rings. I stand to answer it and the phone says K. Grant Room 8 .

“Hey Luke- it’s Caleb, Sadie’s teacher. I wanted to update you on Sadie’s first day and talk about Mr. Carter, the school’s psychologist.”